(Pov: Manager)
A very cheery petite girl walks into the room before she sits down at a chair adjacent to the manager
"You wanted to see me Malkuth?"
"Yes! I've been trying to get into contact with you for the past 5 whole minutes!"
"Oh, that's not too long of a Wait"
Malkuth's eye twitches in impatience as her leg taps erratically
"It was AGONIZING trying to keep my train of thought, 5 minutes was like 5 hours!"
"Haha sorry, can you tell me what you needed?"
Her face with a confident expression on it, slides over a yellow folder to the manager
"What's this?"
"It's my revision of the code of conduct!"
"Alright, let me take a look..."
Reading all of the text on the document, there was indeed lots of things that had been improved, including lots of energy protocols which increased efficiency by 20%
Although there were a few... unsavory things that he didn't exactly agree with
"Malkuth, can you tell me more about this 'Retirement Plan'? It's concerning to say the least."
"Oh that, it's just a nice way of saying extermination"
With that, her smile grows even brighter without a trace of guilt or apprehension
"... I don't exactly think that it's needed for the work we do here."
Then a crack in her confident expression shows through
"W-What? But I made sure to account for EVERY little bit of detail! This is the most optimized method to get energy!!"
"I.. I thought you would like it manager..."
A visual distortion seemed to materialize around her small figure
What the hell?
"Uhh, I never said I wouldn't approve it... I was ju-"
"Great! It's decided then!!"
"Thank you so much manager! I knew I could rely on you!!!"
And just like that she walked out of the door
...
What the hell was that?
Was she even listening to a word I said?
Picking the document up, he took a pen to try and write a few things out before a slender white hand grabbed the document from him
"Seriously? I can't even make changes to the code of conduct?"
"You can, although it needs to go through lots of revisions. Malkuth here would have to wait another 30 days if any of the text were changed in this document"
"Wow, isn't that really convenient"
The manager sighs before resting his head on his hand
"Hey angela."
"Yes manager."
"Why don't you just take my job here?"
"..."
"That wouldn't make any sense, you are the manager here not me."
"Yeah thats true, but at the same time you do most of the stuff ACTUAL managers perform"
"I'm supposedly not allowed to do any of that, and instead I have to just issue orders to the agents and make mistakes"
"I can see how that's frustrating, however you can always resign."
"Haah... no, I'm not giving in that easily."
"I just wish my control here wasn't so terrible"
"There are lots of things I would like to change here, I even sent those revisions myself to the higher-ups but they didn't even entertain a response"
"My apologies for that manager, you can always confide in me if you are feeling down."
Closing his eyes to give them a brief rest, he reclines back in his chair
"Alright, thank you for the offer."
"But I could really use some alone time at the moment."
Angela nods before exiting the office to submit the files on her hands as the manager presses a button
(Pov: Gerald)
Walking into the armory, Gerald turns to see a fully fitted out Lisa, wearing the Horn E.G.O gear
The staff in her hands had hundreds of eyes which were all staring directly at me, sending chills down my spine
"Great job on finally getting E.G.O"
Gerald inwardly cringes when he unintentionally imagines Lisa turning back into the beast with the armor on
"Thank you, I feel alot safer having a usable weapon now! The suit also feels super comfortable."
"That's nice, well I guess let's talk more later at break time the manager just sent me some work."
"No problem, cya Gerald."
Walking out of the armory, he decided to double check the message sent to him
(Please run attachment on One Sin)
Alright, hopefully today goes smoothly.
Walking down the hallway leading up to the containment chamber, a familiar metal box stops him
"Hello Gerald!"
"Oh, hey Malkuth"
She pulls out some files from her arm which was holding a handful of them
"I've been looking at your activity, and I've seen a few Abnormal things here"
"Oh, Can you tell me a few of them if you don't mind?"
"Sure, first of all your performance is nothing short of extraordinary! So keep up the good work!"
"But second, the Qliphoth Deterrence system seems to be acting on your body worse then any of the other employees here"
"It's gotten to the point I fear you might just fall to the floor and die one of these days"
... Well it's always something with this facility huh?
"Gerald, have you been feeling weak or dizzy lately?"
"This can include vomiting, bloody noses, intense fatigue, and more but I'm sure you get what I mean"
Well whenever I first died, there was that time I began to bleed through the roof of my mouth
And then the second death, it made me feel more tired then usual
Could going back and forth between the loops have some sort of lasting effect on me?
"Yeah, I experienced some of the things you listed."
Her posture slowly shrunk as I could hear the metal circuits in her begin grinding together
"That's not good, as the Control Team Sephirah this is my responsibility."
"I'll go triple check the Qliphoth Deterrence list to make sure you are a priority target in the whitelisting"
"Please don't mention this to anyone here... I-I can't make anymore mistakes..."
"Alright Alright, it's fine Malkuth. It isn't even your fault, thank you for taking responsibility though."
With a nod, she shuffles away quickly as a file falls to the floor in her haste
Hmm... what's this?
Gerald covertly grabs the folder before deciding against looking through it
Instead he hides it behind One Sin's own document for him to collect later after work
He opens the door to One Sin's room and stares at the skull before dragging a chair into the room
"Yo."
The skull ignores him and continues chanting in silence
"I got a few questions for you, please answer if you can."
The silence was sort of an affirmation
"What exactly are you? It says on the document that your a Zayin."
Gerald leans in as his face morphs into suspicion
"Because I'm not sure I believe that anymore"
The skull simply floats in place without a care in the world
"The ability that your weapon has... its not exactly fitting for your designation, and you honestly seem like there's more to you then what your showing me"
"It's just a simple observation though, nothing concrete."
The skull then gazes at Gerald before leaning in slightly as it's mouth opens, showing a bright light which threatens to consume the entire room whole
You see me and ask what I am. Tell me, what do you see?
In response his head throbs, beckoning Gerald to close his eyes
What do I see?
I feel like this whole thing has already happened before
I just can't remember, my head hurts...
Keeping his eyes closed, Gerald decides to respond
"I see a bright light with shackles around it"
Then that is what I am.
"This doesn't make any sense, why can't I just get a concrete answer?"
If I told you the truth, would you really be satisfied with my answer?
Every fiber in his body wanted to say yes, but deep down he felt like the answer would only bring more questions
"Whatever, again it was just a question. You aren't obligated to answer"
The skull retracts it's jaw as it closes with a subtle clacking noise, the chanting resumes as it floats in place sluggishly
"I'll take my leave now."
Walking out of the room, he looks around before deciding to fuck around somewhere else until he was issued another order from the manager
(Warning! Punishing bird has escaped containment, further assistance is requested)
Oh shit, I should probably get there before someone makes a mistake.
Rushing over to the corridor in about 2 minutes, he stumbles into a clerk aiming a pistol at the bird as it pecks at him
"S-Stop, It hurts!"
"I'll shoot you!"
Gerald projects his voice in order to convey how bad of an idea that would be
"Hey Clerk, drop the gun"
Seemingly startled, the Clerk recoils from the surprise of such a loud voice directed at him causing his finger to slip as a bullet punctures the Bird's chest
...
It falls down before turning red and flapping very angrily
It's stomach begins to open up to try and consume the Clerk whole, much to the latter's horror
*CHOMP*
A portion of the ground was destroyed where the Clerk was standing, a few feet away was Gerald and the Clerk on the ground, the collar of the clerk's shirt forcefully pulled by Gerald to save him from death
Shit... how am I gonna calm it down?
"You, get the fuck out of here."
"Y-Yes Sir!?"
The Clerk quickly scampers away with his head hung low in shame
Turning his attention back to the bird, he tries to soothe it
"Hey buddy, calm down a secon-"
The mouth then tries to close down on Gerald's face with no success as Gerald vaults over the bird
"Alright, so negotiations are out the window."
Running over to the bird while it's still recovering by retracting it's stomach, Gerald grabs Penitence as it morphs into a blade as a large slash was sent over to the bird
It connects as the Bird's exterior gets visibly injured, it's expression grows angrier by the second
Trying to bite down on Gerald once more, it makes a predictable attack which Gerald sidesteps before switching the weapon to its spherical form
*Bzzzt...*
A low revving sound is heard as it discharges on Punishing Bird point blank, the beam enveloping it whole
In response the bird shoots backwards and slams onto the wall in agony, it's form slowly changing from it's petite frame
It's body triples in size as it's beak and legs grow bigger
Punishing bird seemingly grows large enough to look like a young eagle as it charges at Gerald with terrifying speeds
Fast...
Ducking under the charge, Gerald retaliated by shooting forth a few beams of white as Punishing bird dodges all of them and swipes it's talon, slicing Gerald's left eye
"Arghh..."
Gerald sidestep and bashes it's body inwards with the blunt end of the weapon, afterwards he slashes part of its wing off before backing up
The Bird's injuries start to build up as it has trouble flying, nonetheless it closes in on Gerald as it's stomach opens
Knowing what happens next, Gerald dodges the attack only to be met with a red tendril sending him across the hallway
Blinking in and out of consciousness, Gerald looks at the bird who charges in to deal the final blow to his head
Gerald rolls out of the way before charging Penitence to refresh his mind
What the hell was that?
It can individually use its stomach Tendrils?
As a form of affirmation, Punishing bird begins swiping at Gerald's face with the same Tendrils coming from its stomach, this time they move independently
Blocking a few blows with his blade he retaliated by cutting one of the Tendrils on a counter attack
The blade hits it before making a clanging noise, doing no damage to it
Why is it so damn durable!?
Gerald steps backwards to dodge a fast swipe of its appendage before sending an air slash at its head
It raises its tendril in response, completely negating the attack
Fuck...
The bird swoops in and impales gerald with the same appendage it used to block the previous attack
*Blurgghh*
Puking out some blood from his mouth, Gerald drives the blade into the center of its stomach at full force
The blade connects and sinks into the flesh, it doesn't stop there and sprays blood and flesh everywhere around the room
The bird makes a disgusting gargling sound before it falls to the ground, the tendril piercing Gerald's chest slowly retracts and it's tiny body morphs into a small white egg with its red stomach in the middle of it
Coughing up some blood, Gerald walks over to the emergency medical kit before taking the bandages from it
He first removes the damaged chestplate, exposing a tattered suit underneath, taking the scissors to cut away at the cloth which exposes his bare flesh, it oozes blood slowly
He grabs the stitching tool to close the wound a bit, clenching his teeth Gerald closes it to a decent degree. Although his face is deathly pale, he wraps the bandage around himself which quickly turns red from the blood trying to exit his body
This is good enough...
Slowly making his way over to the containment chamber, he delicately places the egg onto the floor before trying to exit the room
... I think I'm at my limit.
He opens the door before slowly falling to the floor, his mouth starts dripping blood and his eyes go bloodshot
A few clerks rush over to him with panicked expressions, they all talk amongst each other.
Although Gerald can't make out a word they say, a ringing noise envelops him as his eyes slowly come to a close.
(Pov: Lisa)
I came as fast as I could.
After finishing work with Beauty, I met with Yuri in the break room. Both of us heard the announcement and went over to suppress Punishing bird, but the damn doors were locked
Why the hell were they locked?
Lisa bangs on the doors for a few minutes as her and Yuri get impatient
"What do you make of this Yuri?"
"There's no way the doors just magically lock by themselves, they've been sabotaged digitally."
"Look at the handle, there isn't any recent traces of dna on them, nobody has touched it for awhile."
"How the hell can you see dna?"
"Shhh.. I'm not finished"
Yuri clears her throat and resumes her analysis
"This was planned, how convenient is it that the doors seem to jam as soon as an abnormality breaches"
"Right!? Can you get it open then?"
Yuri shakes her head slowly
"There's no way, the controls come directly from the manager's office, I would need higher authority then him if I wanted to open it."
They both brainstorm a way in order to enter the corridor when suddenly the door opens
"..."
"..."
"Let's go I guess."
Nodding Lisa and Yuri zip through the rooms before they stumble across a large crowd of clerks pacing the room
"What's going on here?"
One of the green haired clerks step forward, she has a pale expression
"G-Gerald collapsed!"
"What?"
Lisa looks closer at the agent on the floor and...
Oh god it's him...
Rushing forward to Gerald on the floor, she first checks his pulse
Good, his heart is still beating.
It's really faint though...
Lisa wastes no time and tries to lift Gerald up from the ground
"Yuri, give me a hand here."
"Y-Yeah.."
Yuri takes his other arm and they both make their way over to the main room which has regenerators in it
Gerald's body Is placed on a couch as he slumps over, his expression twitching in pain
Lisa's expression contorts in fear at the sight of the blood which is bleeding through the bandages
"A-Are there any medical staff here?"
Yuri shakes her head
"No... that department hasn't opened up yet."
Thousands of thoughts run through her head as she looks at his expression in sorrow
(???)
In complete darkness the world around morphs, ever changing. The air is unbelievably cold and decrepit
Opening his eyes, he sees nothing. The true meaning of nothing, it was hard to explain.
Everything had nothing, no color just abstract emptiness.
He tries to open his mouth but he doesn't even feel the sensation of one
Hold on, feel? Can he even do that?
The world seemed fake, nothing was real here. Everything meticulously fabricated in order to deceive him
It was then...
*Whirrr...*
He perceived the sensation of a whirring sound, it gradually got louder overtime
Intense dread filled his entire being, this wasn't right.
Ẅ̶̘̄ͅh̷͉̗̍̕õ̵̠ ̶͕̿͂l̶̈́̓͜e̶͙̅̈́ẗ̷̲̝́̈́ ̷̱͆́ ¿
Words which he didn't seem to understand made their way into his head, etching themselves into every corner of his mind.
G̷͔͒ţ̸̫̯̎̕͝ ̷̱͆́ ̴̧̬͗̽ō̴̱u̴̢͒̀͠.
His mind collapsed from the sheer pressure being directed at him, nothing feeling right as his mind warped further
...
"Gerald?"
Opening his eyes, Lisa's body slowly rises up from the chair she was sitting on. Tear marks were etched onto her face as she softly gazes at him
"Finally, you're awake..."
She walks over to him before taking a seat besides him
"What happened back there? Can you remember?"
Gerald takes some deep breaths as he recollects the information
Punishing bird had changed, was it permanent?
Why did it change form? The document said nothing about that being possible.
Is there really something going on with me? Am I the cause of this?
"Gerald?"
Bringing his attention back to the present, Gerald smiles to alleviate some of her worries
"I went to suppress Punishing bird, a clerk had shot it so it got enraged."
"Originally I was going to guide it back to it's chamber, but of course nothing goes to plan"
"As I was repelling it, the bird changed its form. Growing bigger, much bigger."
"I managed to suppress it, although..."
Gerald touched his chest wound
"You can probably guess what happened."
Lisa stares at Gerald in sympathy before hugging him
"!!!"
Gerald sat there in place as he hesitantly put his arms around Lisa
This... This is nice.
...
"Thanks."
Lisa released him before clearing her throat.
"It's decided then."
Gerald tilts his head in confusion
"I'm going to protect you from now on."
"What? Lisa it's fine, I can manage myself just fine."
Lisa raises her brow before she lightly touches his chest wound, making Gerald wince in pain
"... You were saying?"
"..."
He couldn't retort in the slightest, unfortunately
The door swings open causing it to crash into the wall
"THE GENIUS IS HERE!"
Yuri proudly proclaims as her hands were both full of medicine
"I just got authorization to utilize the medical supplies in storage. Now ca-"
Her eyes lock onto a very awake Gerald who is staring at her with slight annoyance
"Oh wow, is that all for me? I didn't know you cared so much."
Yuri's expression darkens as she hurls a pill bottle at his face which hits right on the mark
"Who's worried about who? Huh?"
"That hurt you bastard!"
Her face morphs into a shit eating grin
"What are ya gonna do about it?"
She sticks her tongue out, which pisses Gerald right off.
Lisa quickly smacks the both of their heads before snapping at both of them
"Both of you stop fighting, Gerald here is hurt... wait..."
She just realizes she hit the injured one, contradicting whatever she was about to say
"Sorry Sorry Gerald, you okay?"
Quickly waving it off and laughing he smiles
"Yeah I'm fine, don't worry about it."
Yuri sighs before placing the bag down and turning to the door
"Whatever, I did my job now I'm leaving."
"Thanks for caring Yuri, hehe."
She clenches her fist at the comment but exits the room, not wanting another beating from Lisa.
As she exits, a mature looking man with his suit in disarray walks in
"Yo kid, I heard the news. You alrigh-..."
He quickly trails off on seeing Lisa sitting right next to him, his face grins with a knowing expression
He puts a finger under his nose while saying proudly
"I see, looks like this junior is already beginning his healing process."
"I won't intrude any further."
Before Mao walks out, he shoots a wink at Gerald's stiff expression
Lisa tilts her head
"Do you know him?"
"Yes, unfortunately."
Gerald smiles before shaking his head
"Haha I'm kidding, he's a good guy. Has lots of experience compared to me."
Lisa nods her head before she takes some of the medicine out of the bag
"Here, take some of these... what is this again?"
"Says here its... Enkephalyne Extract."
"Whoa isn't that the stuff produced by the abnormalities?"
Gerald shakes his head before informing her
"No abnormalities produce Enkephalin, these tablets seem to be a refined version of that, most likely in small doses to eliminate the fatal effects of the raw substance"
Gerald goes quiet for a moment as he frowns
Can I even trust this? What if the dosage is wrong and I die?
Then I'd have to restart everything...
Lisa sighs before she takes a tablet in her hands
"Either you eat these yourself, or I'll force them down your mouth."
Gerald shivers before quickly waving his hands
"No No, it's fine I'll take it."
Lisa smiles before she places the bottle on the table next to him
"Take some time off today, the manager won't send you to work in this state."
Gerald nods before putting the pills in his pocket
"Thank you, Lisa... for everything."
She nods with a bright smile on her face
"Anytime."
-
(Pov: Manager)
It happened again, that same variable
Just who is Gerald anyways?
"Angela, have you gotten me his file yet?"
"Yes manager, it's right here."
A yellow document is placed on the desk
...
Scanning through it, the manager's face twists in surprise
"This is...?"
.
.
.
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